Agwu Nsi Figures

Diviners in Northern and Southern Igbo regions carried these small carvings of humans, animals, and Ikenga as part of their ritual paraphernalia to aid in divination, as documented by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) Cambridge. In the Lower Niger area, figures representing personal deities were also used to decorate the meeting houses of wealthy Northern Igbo men who competed in such displays.

The deity Agwu Nsi acts as a critical mediator between mankind, ancestors, and various gods, creating order by arbitrating their needs. According to Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, the dibia consults this spirit to interpret the dissatisfactions of other deities. Agwu is regarded as the patron of both healing and divination, but is also associated with confusion and misfortune, which the Igbo use to explain the fluctuations of fortune, as noted by Mythlok.

Possession by Agwu often recurs within dibia lineages, categorized as agwu nna (paternal) or agwu nne (maternal). As detailed by Grokipedia, this connection binds the living to ndi ichie (ancestors) through inherited symbols such as ntutu agwu.

This photograph was captured from a negative originally found in pocket 93 of the negative album numbered C16/ within the G.I. Jones collection at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.